With ratings dropping, news hosts are feeling the burn. There is added pressure to get higher ratings and stress is at an all time high. With those expectations in mind, some hosts have to resort to new ways to attract the appropriate ratings. Bill O’Reilly and Rachel Maddow have decided to battle for those ratings – in a very public way.

Wednesday night, O’Reilly called Maddow out. The host of The O’Reilly Factor said Fox News “kicks your network’s butt every single night, madam.” He followed that statement up with a question: “You have to be kidding with this fake ACORN scandal stuff. Unbelievable. Do you live in this country?”

Maddow did not pass up an opportunity to go at it with O’Reilly and responded to his comments on Thursday night.

“If by this country you mean is my office right across the street from yours? Yes,” Maddow said. “Unless there’s an unguarded border down the middle lane of Sixth Avenue, yes, I live in what you call this country.”

She took a great liking to his use of “madam” and stated that O’Reilly fell back on ratings to avoid the substance of her argument, which is that stories like the Shirley Sherrod scandal are exactly what Fox News is all about.

“Mr. O’Reilly, you and Fox get great ratings,” she said. “It is so awesome how great your ratings are. You have very big ratings this year.”

She proceeded to list a variety of entertainment programs – from “Deadliest Catch” to “The Closer” to WWE Wrestling to “Spongebob” – that beat both her show and O’Reilly’s show, and said that facts are more important than TV ratings.